Whenever a Random Weekend selection pops up, I first search the blog to make sure I haven’t featured it before. I’ve been doing this long enough that I’ve completely forgotten writing about some songs.
When I searched for “Texas,” because the album featuring this song is called Live in Texas, five of the first dozen or so results were Lyle Lovett songs. Some had Texas in the title, some had it in the lyrics, some included references to Texas by me.
I thought, how cool is it for Texans to have a guy like Lyle Lovett so intertwined with your state? It’s an entirely different level of popularity, but it’s kind of like New Jersey and Springsteen.
Who do we have in Florida? Flo Rida?
Listen, son
Don’t you sit around and cry
Because, love
In this world
Ain’t nothing you can’t buy
She’s got
Ruby lips
And emerald eyes
She’s got diamonds on her mind
If you want that girl
What you need is
Money
That’s money, baby
Money
That’s money, baby
Money
I was out last night
With my girlfriend
Things were going
Very fine
And I asked her
“Would you like a kiss?”
She said, “thank you, no, but I’ll have some
Money.”
That’s money, baby
Money
That’s money, baby
Money
No finance
No romance
Was how she told me goodbye
First she took my love
And then she took all my
Money
That’s money, baby
Money
That’s money, baby
Money
‘Cause she’s got
Ruby lips
And emerald eyes
She’s got diamonds on her mind
And if you want that girl
What you need is
Money
And that’s money, baby
Money
That’s money, baby
Money
Meet Me In Montauk 
As a proud Texan by birth, I can say that nothing makes me quite so proud to call Texas my birth state than the fact that Lyle Lovett is so associated with it. When we visited several years ago, I was all about searching out the various references in his songs.
Today’s song, oddly enough, made its biggest impression on me in the film The Firm. I don’t think I’d ever heard a song played so loudly in a movie before that one, and it was used cleverly in a gripping scene. Wonder how many other times a Lyle Lovett song has played a key role in a film? Hmmm….
To your question, I would say Jimmy Buffett and Gloria Estefan (Miami Sound Maxhine). Tom Petty could qualify as well, though he left Florida long ago.
Tom Petty is definitely Gainesville’s claim to fame (or Micanopy’s, to be precise ;), Key West gets Buffet, and Miami absolutely gets to claim Gloria. We are city specific in this state it seems.